The First Battle of Madrigal
|side2= |commanders1=Icarion Anasem |commanders2=Pyrrhicles |forces1=(To be added) |forces2=(To be added) |casual1=(To be added) |casual2=(To be added) }} The First Battle of Madrigal was --- Betrayal Faced with this ultimate betrayal of everything they and their legion stood for, Pyrrhicles and his brethren were paralysed by indecision. For nearly 250 years, they had fought for the Emperor and the Imperial Truth, shedding blood on countless battlefields and losing hundreds of brothers who they had fought alongside for decades, all in the name of the Imperial Truth and the Emperor's dream. Yet now, the Stormborn, the first son to have been found and the greatest of the Emperor's progeny, was telling them all they had fought, bled and died for was a lie and the man they'd fought for a bloodthirsty tyrant, intent on extermination both them and their father. Surely such a thing couldn't be true? Surely, if the Emperor were truly the tyrant the Stormborn claimed, then their father, the Warmaster, would have refused to serve him? Yet the sheer conviction, sadness and regret the Stormborn spoke with shook their confidence. For he truly believed what he was saying, and he had proven himself trustworthy on a hundred occasions over the course of the Great Crusade. However, despite the conflicting loyalties that tore at the heart of every member of the Vth legion, the faithful could not bring themselves to believe that all the brothers they had lost and all the blood they had shed during the Great Crusade had been for naught or could forsake their Primarch. However, Pyrrhicles saw that he had no hope of persuading the Stormborn that his visions had been mistaken and so, rather than fight his brothers of the Ith, he ordered a retreat by all elements of the Vth currently in orbit over Akira. Yet, while the Ith had ancient oaths to their brethren of the Vth safe passage through all territories where they held dominion, they could not allow word of their involvement in the Insurrection to reach Terra before they were ready, and so Icarion gave the order that the legionnaires of the Vth were to be detained with as little violence as possible. However, matters were further complicated when approximately a third of the Halcyon Wardens, led by Citadel Malis, ignored Pyrrhicles' command and swore themselves to the Stormlord's cause, taking up the chase of their former brothers alongside the newly re-christened Harbingers. With neither side authorised to engage their opponents, this early stage of the battle resembled a dance conducted amidst the endless vastness of space more than a true engagement, as the Harbingers sought to block the Halcyon Wardens escape route, and the Halcyon Wardens evaded them. Who fired the first shot is unknown. In the aftermath, both sides claimed to have only returned fire after the other broke their oath, and while many suspect the traitor Halycon Wardens, seeking to eradicate those who they viewed as traitors twice over, none know for certain. Once this first shot was fired, the battle rapidly escalated as all-out war broke out over Akira. With both Legions' vessels ripping into one another, the Stormlord issued one last order before washing his hands of events in the void over Akira. If at all possible, the vessels of the Vth were to be captured intact and their crews were to be taken captive rather than killed, a last act of mercy made out of respect for the Warmaster and genuine regret that it should come to battle. Now commanded by First Sentinel Athrawes, the Harbingers fleet, far out numbering that of the Vth, set about crippling or, if necessary, destroying the Vth legion vessels. Such was the fate that befell Captain Agamenos and the Proud heart, destroyed following his refusal to cease fire and his destruction of a Ist legion battle barge. Those Vth legion vessels that weren't destroyed were crippled and then boarded by hundreds of Harbingers or, in some cases, their traitor brothers. Seeing the situation deteriorate with every passing second, Pyrrhicles gave what would prove to be his last order. The Halcyon Wardens' fleet was to break formation and the individual ships were to escape in any way they could. While this doomed the larger capital ships, it also gave a genuine of escape for the light cruisers and frigates. Any ships that escaped was to set course for Terra and keep that course no matter what happened for the Warmaster had to know what had transpired in the Madrigal system. With the Wardens' formation breaking apart, many Loyalist ships fell one by one, destroyed at long range by the Harbingers or by their own crew to prevent them falling into the hands of their enemy. One of the last to fall was the Dominion of Reason, Pyrrhicles' flagship. Stormed by First Sentinal Athrawes and an elite party of Harbingers, including almost a dozen Volta terminators, the engine crew had little chance to trigger the vessel's self destruct mechanism. While there were numerous attempts by the Vth to trigger the mechanism, all were stopped by Ist Legion boarding parties. Eventually, as the Harbingers approached the command chamber, Pyrrhicles and what few Halycon Wardens remained picked up their shields and spears and marched out to do battleone last time. Numbering but 300, they were out numbered and with nowhere they could escape to. However, they welcomed such an end, wishing only that they die so that their brothers of other vessels might live. Forming a solid wall of shields, spears and muscle outside the command chamber, they prepared to face the transhumans who had once been their brothers and do battle for the final time. So they did. With nothing but doom behind them, they showed no hesitation nor despair when they were charged by the Harbingers, only determination and courage the likes of which is better suited to gods of old Terra than men. Giving their all, they cut down many times their own number. However, with each assault, they numbered fewer and fewer as they gradually fell to Ist Legion blades, each Space Marines' last moments a stand worthy of an entire epic. Unfortunately by the fifth charge, they were just thirty strong and now faced the First Sentinal and the Volta elite of the Ist. Meeting the challenge head on, they locked shields and with a mighty roar clashed with the Ist, the very foundations of the vessel shaking with the impact. At the centre of this battle of heroes were Pyrrhicles of the Vth and Athrawes of the Ist. The two warriors clashed in both the physical and spiritual realm and as their blades crossed so too did their wills. Alas, Phyrricles was only half of a Legiones Astartes, while Athrawes was a true Legionnaire, and thus the outcome was inevitable. While Pyhrricles put up a heroic defence, his aged body betrayed him as the toll of a thousand battles wore him down, until, finally, a beam from Athrawes' blade found the less armoured joint between Pyhrricles' neck and shoulder. Bleeding out upon the deck, Pyhrricles at last knew peace after a lifetime of war. While the remaining Halycon Wardens mounted a last stand to defend the body of their leader, they were but five and death found them to be easy targets. The Battle of Madrigal was over. The Red Dawn Rises With the death of the last Halycon Wardens on board the Dominion of Reason, the Harbingers and Icarion had crossed the Rubicon. From this point onwards, they couldn't turn back. They had only one direction to go and that was to Terra, for they would either emerge victorious or they would be vanquished by the Imperial forces. They had sealed their path into rebellion with the blood of the 2000 Halycon Wardens who now floated dead through the void above Madrigal. Despite 7 V legion vessels, including the battle barge Blade of Truth, commanded by Captain Bolaro, having escaped and being bound for Terra, Icarion bore nothing but grief for those Halycon Wardens who had died to make their escape possible. Of all the legions, he held the V in highest esteem and for his own warriors to have had to kill so many of Delos' brave sons was a tragedy beyond even that of the Emperor's perfidy. In a last show of respect for these brave warriors, who had gone to their deaths in service of a misguided creed bent to the will of a tyrant, he had a vast marble tomb built for those of them whose bodies could be recovered and upon each tomb was inscribed the warriors name and a small collection of words etched into the tomb in gold filigree which read "Here lies a brave man, killed by his loyalty". The Death of a Dream needed Category:F Category:Battle Category:Day of Revelation